Global cloud computing traffic will grow 12-fold from 130 exabytes to reach a total of 1.6 zettabytes annually by 2015, according to a new Global Cloud Index published by Cisco. This represents a 66 percent compound annual growth rate, and makes cloud the fastest growing component of data center traffic, which itself is forecast to grow 4-fold at a 33 percent CAGR to reach 4.8 zettabytes annually by 2015. Cisco calculates that cloud traffic today represents about 11% of data center traffic.
Cisco generated its Global Cloud Index using various primary and secondary sources, including more than 30 terabytes of data generated each month over the past year from a variety of data centers around the globe, measurements of more than 45 million broadband-speed tests and third-party market forecasts. The company notes that the vast majority of the data center traffic is not caused by end users but by the data centers and clouds themselves undertaking activities that are largely non-transparent to end users – like backup and replication.
Some items of note:
- Of the data center traffic in 2015, 76 percent stays within the data center itself, through such activities as storage and authentication across virtual machines.
- 17 percent is data-center traffic being delivered to end users.
- 7 percent is generated between data centers through activities such as backup and replication.
- Peak end-user activity more than 2.5 times average in 2015.
- In 2010, 21 percent of workloads were processed in a cloud-based data center with 79 percent being handled in a traditional data center.
2014 is the first year where the balance of workloads shifts toward the cloud for the first time – 51 percent of total workloads will be in a cloud environment versus 49 percent in the traditional IT space. - Overall, the data center workload from 2010 – 2015 is growing 2.7-fold; however, the cloud workload from 2010 – 2015 is growing more than 7-fold over the forecast period.
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